Wristwatch Madness!
David Brooks is really hitting quite a stride of media saturation. He's the editor of The Weekly Standard, or he was at the time of the publication of his best-selling book Bobos in Paradise. Bobos argues, half-bakedly, that the Bohemians of the Bourgeoisie (Geddit? Bourgeois Bohemians? Bobos?) have transformed shopping into an act of enlightened anti-consumerism. His story on The Organization Kids was on the cover of March's Atlantic Monthly.

And now he's got a bimonthly column in the New York Times magazine called The Machine Age. This one is about high-end watches. You know the kind: they keep atomic time, have little star charts embedded in their crushed diamond cases, and can boast over 1,000 moving parts. Brooks is on much stronger ground when he keeps his subject simple and direct. He's still a little facile and suspiciously unwilling to examine the potential weaknesses of his arguments, but I can't deny the effectiveness of a closing line like this: "The owner of a really expensive watch isn't just saying, 'I'm rich and you stink.' He's saying: 'I appreciate quality and material integrity. You and your Palm Pilot are the mere electron blips of an ephemeral age.' I can respect that."
Sunday, April 29, 2001 11:35 a.m.

David Cross At The Nike Store
From the Stay Free! archives. Read Mr. Show transcripts here.
Saturday, April 28, 2001 03:57 p.m.

About a Boy Photos
Nick Hornby will now be three for three. All of his novels have been (or are in the process of being) adapted for the silver screen. Looks like Hugh Grant has chopped off his cutesy, floppy mane for the roll of Will in the forthcoming movie adaptation of About a Boy. I think I like him better floppy.
Saturday, April 28, 2001 03:55 p.m.

Bob Kerrey and Vietnam
Well, I've got my weekend reading cut out for me. I think I may actually buy a copy of the New York Times this Sunday to read this article in its entirety. Has anyone here read In the Lake of the Woods? Because the little I've read of former Senator Kerrey's awful story reminds me very strongly of that book.
Friday, April 27, 2001 12:09 p.m.

Julius Knipl, Real Audio
With Jerry Stiller as the titular real estate photographer. My favourite line so far: "I have a terrible heartburn and only vanilla ice cream can save me!"
Friday, April 27, 2001 12:07 p.m.

Gone With the Wind Parody Won't Publish
Alice Randall, known best for being one of Nashville's only black songwriters, has written a parody of Gone With the Wind, called The Wind Done Gone, in which she tells the story from the perspective of one of the slaves of Tara, a half-sister of Scarlett named Cynara. But the book won't be published in June as scheduled, because Margaret Mitchell's estate is suing Ms. Randall and Houghton Mifflin (her publisher) for copyright infringement. Which seems a little ridiculous to me, but then I remember that one of the first articles I read for my Book History class this year was one about how Mitchell and her entire family fought tooth and nail in the Dutch courts for over 15 years to protect her book's copyright and her foreign royalties. Lesson: you don't mess with the Mitchells.
Thursday, April 26, 2001 10:40 a.m.

Screamin' Jay Hawkins
I'm late to the Screamin' Jay Hawkins lovefest, it's true. It's just that "I Put a Spell on You" is in some commercial lately and it got me thinking about the whole 50-odd kids thing and how he really knew how to work a good look. You know what else I was thinking? It seems to me that Tim Burton could and should do a biopic of the late Mr. Hawkins. In addition, I think that Don Cheadle, who is very deserving of fame and fortune and all the accolades that discerning movie viewers might want to heap upon his fine & talented head, to say nothing of really plum roles, should have the lead in it. We just need a writer.
Wednesday, April 25, 2001 10:37 p.m.

Rare Radio
I owe Matt, big time. He linked to Grand Royal's Rare Radio yesterday and I checked it out this morning, and have barely left my computer terminal since then. I think I may have to leave my ears attached to the speakers permanently. In the last 15 minutes, I've heard the following songs, none of which I'd ever heard before: "Do the Funky Penguin," "Dope on Plastic," "Funky Superfly Parts 1 + 2" and lots more. This is exactly the radio station I've been longing for.
Wednesday, April 25, 2001 10:32 p.m.

Mike D interviews the Neptunes
Well, Rare Radio was not enough for me. I had to have more, more, more! of all things Grand Royal. So a-surfing I went, and here are the spoils from today. The Neptunes are the latest hip hop/R&B producer sensations out of Virginia Beach. If you've heard "Shake Ya Ass", Kelis' "Caught Out There", or ODB's "Got Your Money", you've heard the Neptunes at work. They are very cool and very hot and they shot the shit with Mike D for Grand Royal's in-house magazine.
Wednesday, April 25, 2001 10:27 p.m.

The Etymology of "Mosh"
The Grand Royal gravy train just keeps on keepin' on. The fabulous Mary Chen sets the world straight on how it came to pass that your Mom now knows what moshing is.
Wednesday, April 25, 2001 10:12 p.m.

Rabble!
Rabble is a new Canadian lefty e-zine. It's groovy, it's fun, it's informative, and the discussion boards are run by my friend Audra Williams, who is also the amazing force behind Marigold and Chicks With Antlers. Check it out!
Tuesday, April 24, 2001 10:32 p.m.

The Next Album I Want To Buy
Lloyd Cole's got a new band and a new album that sounds wonderful. I downloaded "That Boy" tonight, and it was just as gorgeous as the review made it sound. I'll have to stick to downloads for the time being, I'm afraid.
Tuesday, April 24, 2001 10:28 p.m.

Nick Hornby + Los Lobos Box Set
= a cracking good read. I don't know why Nick Hornby doesn't write more often in a professional/critical capacity about music. He's really quite good. I practically shouted YES! when I read this description of "I Got Loaded", off of Will the Wolf Survive?: "I suspect that there is a generation of young people out there to whom "I Got Loaded" may sound like nothing more than a piece of Gap retro marketing, but the rest of us are likely to hear it as rock's binary code." (N.B.: if you're going to read this article, do so in the next few days, because the high culture punkasses at The New Yorker don't believe in keeping web archives.)
Tuesday, April 24, 2001 10:24 p.m.

Pearl Frush
A female pinup artist! Who knew? Via someone. If you're the person I stole this link from, e-mail me and let me know so I can give you credit.
Monday, April 23, 2001 01:45 p.m.

New Air Album
Out May 29. Called 10,000 Hz. So excited.
Monday, April 23, 2001 01:44 p.m.

I'm Obsessed with Iceland

Isn't everyone? I think there must be some wierd ancestral memory thing going on with me and my Iceland-philia. My Grandma served in Iceland as a nurse in WW2, so maybe that's where it comes from. The landscape imprinted on the egg that eventually became my Mom. Or something. That's not important. What is important is Iceland is totally fascinating.

Check it out. Not only is it a global pop laboratory, producing wierd but lovable and hugely listenable acts like the Sugarcubes, Bjork, GusGus, and Sigur Ros, but it's also (because of its small, largely homogenous population) a mecca for geneticists trying to map the human genome. Unfortunately, there have been some problems related to the ethics and business practices of one of these genome mapping companies (I did have a link for this, but it's now broken).

If all that's not enough for you, you can also read daily news from Iceland.
Monday, April 23, 2001 01:36 p.m.